Isabel Marant / Fall 2012 RTW

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An Isabel Marant collection has, as we all know, always got its legs. Marant is in the thrall of—and made us equally partial to—the cool Parisian rocker gamine whose long, lean pins constantly take her in search of a) artfully unkempt natural hair, b) a scrupulous avoidance of maquillage, and c) the knowledge that a girl looks her best when she’s also looking a little like a boy. Yet Marant also has another kind of legs—the rise and rise of her label, which has quietly become a global tour de force; she has six new stores in the works that will open this year, dotted around the world wherever they’re enthralled by les jambes too. While it seemed almost inevitable that, by the fashion law of averages, the Isabel Marant label could only fizzle out from its bubbly peak a couple of years back. Well, that supposition turned out to be entirely erroneous. There appears to be no abating of the worldwide desire for Marant’s particular brand of girls gone Gauloises chic.

Of course, it’s easy to see why. Even when she is showing fall, there’s an essential sunniness—and sensuality—to what Isabel Marant creates that doesn’t need any great exposition to understand. She has a knack for forging a primal connection between what she designs and how young, cool women want to dress and look, which is to say, at the moment, as undone and as natural as possible; do as little as you can to the hair of Arizona, Anja, Aymeline, et al, appears to be the beauty directive, and it looks good. Backstage, Marant claimed she’d been so busy working on her collection she hadn’t even had a chance to look at all the glowing press she’d garnered in the last couple of days. The only thing that had been on her reading list, after sitting in her bureau for years, was a copy of Cowgirls, a photographic study of the gals who wrangle and work the farm in tough, rugged masculine jeans, but wear, to appeal to their feminine side, delicate lace blouses.

Put that way, it’s obvious Marant territory, with her look built around the legs encased in cropped skinny jeans in pale pink or black, emblazoned with cowboy-style piped yokes, a swish of gaucho metal-adorned fringing, and flower embroideries traced down the side of the legs. That abbreviated trouser shape, cut with a slight kick at the hem, is reaching its crescendo in Paris, and what made these appear so easy and desirable was that they didn’t need a strict jacket on top to work. Perish the thought: Marant is delving into everything from pretty Edwardiana (fragile lace), to swaggering, oversize military coats, to ocelot-print fur, to still more of her quilted and patched (and, in this case) studded cardigan jackets, to keep the look broken in, and approachable, and friendly. When she wasn’t working with pants, she simply switched them out for short, pleated silk lingerie skirts. Regardless, those legs were well to the fore.